Grist Joins France's Suite Numérique
France’s sovereign productivity suite — the Suite Numérique, formerly known as LaSuite — has added another component: Grist, an open-source tool that combines the accessibility of a spreadsheet with the structure of a relational database and a no-code app builder.
The integration was reported by the EU’s Open Source Observatory in January 2026. But Grist is not new to French government IT: it has been running within the Suite Numérique and through the national agency ANCT for three years already.
The numbers
By January 2026, Grist reached 20,000 monthly active users in French public administration — ten times more than in January 2025. It is used by 15 ministries, all 100 prefectures, and major cities including Lyon and Strasbourg. Use cases range from budget dashboards managing multi-million euro portfolios to neighbourhood monitoring and project management.
The French government is currently the largest contributor to the Grist project alongside the original developer. DINUM and ANCT provide training through webinars, workshops, a Peertube channel, and dedicated forums — all of it publicly accessible.
Why this matters
Grist fills a gap that has long plagued open-source office suites: the spreadsheet-as-database use case. In most organisations, complex multi-person workflows live not in proper databases but in shared Excel files — with all the version control problems, data integrity issues, and single-point-of-failure risks that entails. Grist addresses this by offering collaborative, structured data management with a spreadsheet-like interface.
For the Suite Numérique, Grist’s addition means one less reason to reach for a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licence. Every new component that works well enough to replace a proprietary tool makes the entire sovereign stack more viable.
The model is also noteworthy: the French state does not merely use Grist — it contributes to its core code, invests in training infrastructure, and publishes all materials under open licences. This is Public Money, Public Code in practice.